Abstract : In his fifth book published in 2015 (after Piasenta, 1988,
2001, 2006, 2011), coach Jacques Piasenta details his
conceptualization of how to achieve success for both recreational
and high performance sport contexts. Piasenta
argues for an ‘athlete oriented’ instead of ‘performance
oriented’ approach and considers the performance
oriented viewpoint as “dehumanizing” (p. 8). Piasenta
supports athletes striving for improved performances
for internal personal reasons instead of external social
factors. An approach that is congruent with typical definitions
of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The vision
offered is the marathon runner happy to have finished the
race regardless of time or place in the field.